Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for June 27, 2010

For fans of the comic strip “Annie” …

http://www.gocomics.com/thecardinal/2010/06/27/

Thanks, Cardinal, nice to see Annie lives on. I hope Jim will give her a cameo here.

I wonder if Rufus and Joel ever found Moe’s Art Store. If not, I guess they’re already out of the “spatial delivery” business.

What’s a drive-in thee-A-ter?

Maybe he should have taken the mule and wagon. There’s an office building in my hometown where the drive-in used to be. Oh and thanks, Cardinal!

oh, they’re still around– just not as many as in the fifties and sixties… I saw ‘goldfinger’ when it first came out at the drive-in in ‘64; high expectations of a great flick were dashed when a fog bank rolled and made the screen ,frustratingly ,almost invisible. Inclement weather always was one of the hazards of drive-in entertainment. Loved the trip to the snack bar in between movies, though..

I apologize for the geezer-like ramblings, but what do you expect from an old geezer?

At first I thought the drive-in movie reference was really out of date. There is a drive-in near me in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but they seem to be as scarce as hen’s teeth today.

However, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association (yes, there is such a trade group…check out uditoa.org) as of last September there were still 381 drive-in theaters, operating 628 screens.

Obviously not that many, but there is at least one in every state, with the exceptions of Alaska, Delaware and Louisiana. Having grown up in the heat and humidity of Baton Rouge, I can understand why there are none in that state!

Drive-in The-aters aren’t gone. There’s one operating here in Saskatoon, which you can imagine is quite a trick in Saskatchewan. The operate until the first serious snowfall, and If I’m not mistaken do a good business.

At one time in the sixties there were four drive-ins around here, but the city grew up around three of them and the land became more valuable as strip malls, car dealerships and housing than it was as an ozoner.

Thanks for that link BuzzDog! (http://uditoa.org/)

I see from their listing of drive-in theaters in my area, that there is still one left open that I used to frequent. I just noticed driving by recently that the one that I went to the most that was very close to my neighborhood is now closed. (Sad.)

Some of our drive-ins used to be open all year. I remember watching movies through the falling snow with the windshield wipers going. Lots of activities going on in the car as well.

And the cuisine at the concession stand was soooo good!

…someone should really have a much longer talk with Miss Melba.

Don’t put the cart before the mule, Joe!